Unsteady

by Peyton Corinne

thought maybe you could listen to it while you skate and… I don’t know. It’s stupid—” “It’s not,” I cut her off vehemently. “You made me a playlist.”

“Good night, kotyonok.”

KITTEN

Sadie Gray is my fucking girlfriend now. I want to shout it so that my dad, the trainers—hell, the whole building—can hear me.

And I see it then: the reason Rhys loves me the way he does. The reason he cares for the boys and wants to keep us close. It’s because he’s seen this his whole life. Has been surrounded by love.

Loving me, loving my brothers—it’s easy for him.

Rhys is holding my twelve-year-old brother in a tight hug, sitting on the large ledge of the hospital window so that Oliver can stand between his legs and keep his head against Rhys’s chest. Rhys is whispering into his ear at a constant rate, and the nod of my brother’s head without leaving the embrace, fists tugging at his suit jacket, tells me everything. Oliver hates being touched, and yet he’s wrapped completely in Rhys’s arms.

want to say I owe them everything, but I’m learning that it’s okay to ask for help and accept it without constantly worrying about how to repay people.